Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a fun 'fill in the blank' challenge chosen by me:

We are at the end of September and with three months to go, thoughts naturally turn towards Christmas and the festive season. As crafters, we often tell ourselves at the start of the year we will build our stash of Christmas cards throughout the year, but how many do we actually make? I thought today's challenge would be a great time to find out, so whether this is your first Christmas card of the year or your fiftieth, do play along this week and let me know! I had a card made for today's challenge, but when I saw Donna's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week I had not one but three ideas with it, so I saved my original card for another day and had to get one of those ideas out of my head and into paper! Take a look at what I came up with and read on to see how I filled in our blank:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

So this is the 23rd Christmas card I've made this year so far! It's the 18th one I've shared here on my blog (the other five are for upcoming design team challenges that I will share in due course). I was actually surprised that I hadn't made more - so expect me to be doing more Christmas creating in the coming months. Donna's layout includes a Christmas tree-shaped triangle, although she points out that the shape can be anything - it doesn't have to be a tree. For today's card I went for something of a halfway house: I chose to use a tag from the Happiest Season Mix & Match Tag Pack for the main shape, but one that featured a diecut Christmas tree that I popped out to use the negative. I added a snippet of paper from the co-ordinating Creative Celebrations DSP Pack that I've been creating with lots lately that featured the same soft blue with a delicate snowflake pattern and added some silver twine and a trio of rhinestones, along with one of the new white felted stars, before finishing with a simple silver heat-embossed sentiment (from the retired 'Merriest Wishes'):

The tag and paper is a very pale shade of Hydrangea Hue, but the cardstock is much darker than this and was too bold for my mat. A rummage in the retired cardstock box resulted in a mat of Seaside Spray, which proved a better fit. This is such a simple card, yet it has an elegance to it I think. It's one of those cards where I feel like I've managed to channel my 'inner Celine', an homage to the fabulous designer over at Freshly Made Sketches, Cecile Ribon, who makes such fabulous clean and elegant cards - check out her fabulous feline this week here. I'm also linking today's card up over at Inspire.Create Challenge where their current challenge is 'clean and simple'. I really like this card and you could use the layout with any of the tag shapes in the Creative Celebrations pack.

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Fill In The Blank challenge, please tell us in your post how you completed the sentence.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

Enjoy your day; I'm hoping to escape to my craft room this afternoon and try out another of my ideas using Donna's fabulous layout. If I get there I'll be back tomorrow with another project - fingers crossed. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

HAPPIEST SEASON TAGS MIX & MATCH EPHEMERA PACK (£6.75)

CREATIVE CELEBRATIONS MIX & MATCH 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£13.00)

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)

METALLICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (£20.00)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my turn to host this week and I have a fun theme challenge for us to work with:

It's my birthday tomorrow and that's what inspired my choice of theme this week. You can't have a birthday cake without at least one candle, right? You are not restricted to birthday candles for your cards though - Christmas candles, menorah or any kind of seasonal candles are fine - just include at least one on your card. I was leafing through my new Creative Celebrations Mix & Match Designer Paper and realised there were two different festive candle designs, so I decided to choose one as the focal point for today's card. Take a look at what I came up with:

Here's the low-down on today's card:

This pretty festive candle is on an arch-shaped tag, so I carefully fussy cut three of them from the Creative Celebrations paper (because everything looks better in threes!) and mounted them onto three split-colour arches cut with my Everyday Arches Dies. I used another pattern in the pack for the top half of my background (the lower portion is from another retired Christmas pack) and added in some diecut bows, foliage and snowflakes along with a sentiment from my stash:

Lots of layers on this one, but actually the paper has enough detail to stand alone - even without my additions the paper is perfect for both quick and more detailed Christmas cards. So what kind of candles will you feature on your cards? 

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

Enjoy your day; I'll be back later in the week with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

CREATIVE CELEBRATIONS MIX & MATCH 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£13.00)

EVERYDAY ARCHES DIES (£27.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

PEACEFUL PINE CLASSIC STAMPIN PAD (£14.00)

2026–2028 IN COLOR™ A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! Firstly a big thank you to everyone who joined us for our milestone 800th challenge last week; the gallery was amazing! It's the turn of the fabulous Jaydee to host this week and as it's the fifth Sunday of the month we have a tictactoe board for you to work with:

I decided to go across the top row with patterned paper/things that fly/layers for a Christmas card (or two!) featuring more of those Creative Celebrations designer series paper patterns and a new Online Exclusives Christmas stamp set called 'Woodland Wishes' - take a look:

Here's the low-down on today's card:

Woodland Wishes includes a whole range of outline animals, with a main stamp including a pyramid of animals in the shape of a Christmas tree, that are great for colouring individually or alternatively simply stamping as is. For my card I layered a piece of Hydrangea Hue patterned paper onto a white mat and Hydrangea Hue base, then heat embossed the main tree of woodland animals stamp from 'Woodland Wishes' in white onto another panel of Hydrangea Hue and die cut this with a Perennial Postage DIe. I added a ribbon tab in the same colour and a trio of white sparkling sequins, then added it to my prepared base with dimensionals. Can you see all of the things that fly in the image? I counted a bird (maybe a robin), an owl and two doves: 

A simple heat-embossed sentiment on a banner below completes my card. I really like this card, so I made a few more using other patterns of DSP in the Creative Celebrations pack. Here's a green one, stamped in Peaceful Pine onto Soft Succulent:

On this one the image is heat-embossed in gold onto Real Red cardstock:

 The final one is stamped in Real Red onto white cardstock, with a colourful plaid background:

I made a few more of these stamping in red or green onto white too - here's a shot of all of the different designs together:

With a stamping platform, this card was a great one to make multiples of. I sent a whole bunch of these out to customers with their new September Stampin' Up! catalogues and had a bunch left over to add to my Christmas stash too. The blue car is my favourite, although I am quite partial to the one with the plaid background too. Do you have a favourite? Do let me know in the comments below.

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

Enjoy your day; it's a long Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK and es you've guessed it that can only mean one thing: rain! There was no cricket yesterday as it poured down all day, so I stayed inside and spent the day cooking instead. If today's cricket proves a wash out too, I will get more time to craft so may well have a few extra projects to share with you this week! I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Ann to host and we have a special challenge for you this week to celebrate our 800th challenge! As it's sketch week, we are going to revisit the very first sketch we used here at The Paper Players when we started:

Ann was one of the original team members, so it's only fitting she should be our host this week.My own blog doesn't go back that far so I know I didn't play along with this sketch the first time around; Challenge 169 was the first challenge I played along with and I joined the design team as a guest then a permanent member on Challenge 203 - so I'm nearer my personal 600th anniversary post, but I digress! You know how much I love a good sketch, so revisiting number 1 was fun - and I broke open some of my new pre-order product from the new September Stampin' Up! catalogue to make a Christmas card to share with you today - take a look:

Here's the low-down on today's card:

There's a mix of old and new on today's card: I used one of the patterns in the new Creative Celebrations Mix & Match designer series paper pack with a printed wreath as the centre of my focal layer, cutting it out with an Everyday Arches Die to follow the shape of the wreath. I used a base of (retired) Soft Succulent cardstock and covered the top portion with a piece of (retired) Tidings of Christmas patterned paper - the colour, including the retired Evening Evergreen, coordinates really well with these new papers.

For my accent image I used a deer, complete with winter scarf.  The deer is a pre-cut diecut piece that is also included in the Creative Celebrations DSP pack - it contains a mixture of patterned sheets, split sheets, tag designs and a few sheets of precut pieces that are great for quick and easy cards. The designs also co-ordinate perfectly with the Season of Celebration Mix & Match Ephemera Pack and the Happiest Season Tags Mix & Match Ephemera Pack - both of which you can expect to see on future cards. I fussy cut the diecut deer's border a little closer and decided to add some clear rhinestones to my wreath and a Hydrangea Hue bow behind my dear for a couple of extra festive touches:

A banner of Evening Evergreen cardstock and a simple 'Noel' greeting from the (retired) 'Peaceful Noel' stamp set complete today's card.

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

It would be lovely to see as many of you as possible join us for our milestone anniversary challenge this week. Enjoy your day; I don't have anything special planned today, so I'm hoping it will be a relaxing one. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

EVERYDAY ARCHES DIES (£27.00)

2026–2028 IN COLOR™ A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£6.75)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Stef to host this week and she has a colour challenge for us to work with:

When I had my Charming Landscapes embossing folder out on my desk when I made this card a few weeks ago, I wondered if there was the opportunity to turn these little houses into gingerbread houses and create a different look with this embossing folder. The Christmas in July challenge over at Just Add Ink and Stef's colour palette gave me the perfect colour combination to do so - take a look:

Here's the low-down on today's card:

The first thing I did was to emboss the panel in white, then mask off the foreground, houses and trees and using my blending brushes, I inked in the sky using a combination of Coastal Cabana and (retired) Bermuda Bay inks. I then embossed the deign onto both Crumb Cake and Real Red cardstocks, and fussy cut the houses and roofs, before piecing the together and gluing them in pace. I added a peppermint embellishment to the door of one of the houses in place of a wreath, coloured in the snowflakes with a white gel pen and added some white glossy enamel dots for a little extra snowy detail:

I wasn't sure what to do about a sentiment, but in the end I added one from a 'go to' retired set called 'Brightest Glow', adding some Real Red ribbon behind and tying with some peppermint-striped twine for a final festive flourish. This card did require a little effort over and above a simple embossed card front, but it was nice to use this embossing folder in a different way. And I've another Christmas card for my stash!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

Enjoy your day; today is officially the start of the James Junior's birthday week; since his actual birthday falls midweek, today we are having family for lunch so birthday cake is the order of the day! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	CRUMB CAKE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	COASTAL CABANA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)	REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)	REAL RED & WHITE ADHESIVE-BACKED PEPPERMINTS (£8.00)
BLENDING BRUSHES (£16.00)

Happy Monday everyone! I managed to squeeze in a little crafty time this afternoon and had just long enough to whip up a quick card using Donna's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week:

I thought the frame would be perfect for me to try out a stamp I picked up last Christmas that still hadn't seen ink - take a look:

Here's the low-down on today's card:

This stamp set is called 'Merriest Wishes' by My Favourite Things - isn't the little girl in her reindeer onesie so cute? She is perfect for a spot of light colouring with my Blends markers and I thought the Christmas lights around her antlers would tie in nicely with some retired Merry, Bold & Bright designer series paper that features rows of Christmas lights too:

A simple frame and sentiment from the same set complete my card. Another Christmas card for my collection!

A short and sweet blog post too - I need to link up my card before the close!

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a fun 'fill in the blank' challenge chosen by LeAnne:

My favourite embossing folder - hmm! I have a large collection of embossing folders, but don't tend to use them all that much. I do have a few firm favourites though and one of my favourite Christmas ones is this retired one from the pair called 'Charming Landscapes - which I'm also sharing with 52 Christmas Card Throwdown for their embossing folder challenge this week. Here's my card:

Here's the low-down on today's card:

I love this cute row of quirky houses nestled amongst the snowy landscape and whilst it looks great in white, I also like to mask off the foreground, buildings and trees and add colour to the sky using ink and blending brushes. For today's card I used two of the new In Colours, Hydrangea Hue and Barely Blush, with a little retired Purple Posy in between: 

I painted in the embossed stars and snowflakes with a white gel pen and some clear Wink of Stella and added a few rhinestones, then grabbed a simple Merry Christmas sentiment from one of the sets on my shelf to complete my card. I use this embossing folder every year to add Christmas cards to my stash!

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Fill In The Blank Challenge complete the sentence - and use a project that demonstrates this.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

2026–2028 IN COLOR™ CLASSIC STAMPIN' PADS (£63.00)

2026–2028 IN COLOR™ A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

Happy weekend everyone! I've had a few blog problems since Tuesday's updates, but fingers crossed they've now been resolved. On the upside, I have a few makes ready to share. Today I have a card for the current challenge over at Color Hues:

I decided the red and grey colour palette would make for a festive Christmas card and took the opportunity to have another go at colouring my sweet Bundle Girl from Stamping Bella, sending another Letter To Santa  - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

The red and grey colours were perfect for my postbox, with a cardinal looking on as my little bundle girl reached up to post her letter. Once coloured, I fussy cut my image then popped it up onto an embossed snowy background:

A touch of Wink of Stella on my embossed snowflakes and a pop of red from my sentiment banner complete my card. There is something so theraputic about colouring a single image, where you can really concentrate on blending your colours and achieving a realistic looking finish. I love it! 

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Enjoy your day; it's certainly still cold enough for snow here, although there's none forecast today. Perfect soup making weather though - I am making spiced squash soup this afternoon. I'll be back tomorrow with my project for our first challenge of the year with The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	WINK OF STELLA GLITTER BRUSH (£9.50)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£7.50)	CHERRY COBBLER STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	REAL RED STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	POPPY PARADE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)
SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	GRAY GRANITE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	CRUMB CAKE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	STAMPIN’ BLENDS MEDIUM LIGHT COMBO PACK (£10.25)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for our final challenge of the year, a colour challenge set by our erstwhile teamie Jane:

I decided that I wanted to make a Christmas card featuring the Branching Out bundle that has been sat on my desk for ages, waiting to be used - and it's already on the Last Chance List! Take a look:

Here's the low-down on today's card:

I had a layout in mind for my card, but when I saw a card using the Branching Out bundle by Jay Soriano, one of the UK Artisans, shared in our private demonstrator Facebook group earlier this week I changed my mind and decided to CASE his layout, but adding my own twist using our challenge colours. My base DSP was a piece of retired Brightly Gleaming specialty paper with a beautiful gold embossed design and you basically cut a slit into it before gluing to the base, so that you can slide the labels into it before gluing down. A slit is also added to the uppermost layer of the label above the stamped sentiment - this slit is the home for the various pieces of diecut greenery, berries and pinecones:

I added sparkly gold enamel dots for my berries for a touch of festive sparkle, along with some retired gold ribbon tied with Night of navy twine. I always cut more greenery than I need when making this type of card - perfect to decorate the inside:

I really like this layout and can see me using it with other sets too. I have finally posted all of my Christmas cards for the year, but I can't promise that I'm done with making them; it's always good to get a head start on next year, right?

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Colour Challenge use all of the given colours and only those colours with these exceptions:
• White and Very Vanilla are free colours.
• In addition, you may use of ONE of these neutrals: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige.
• For a Speed Stamping Challenge you must tell us the time it took to make your project and it must be finished in under 10 min.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BRANCHING OUT BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£45.00)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	PECAN PIE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	PECAN PIE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	MOSSY MEADOW A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)
MOSSY MEADOW CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	OPAL ROUNDS ASSORTMENT (£8.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Rachel is hosting this month and it's our final challenge of the year: 

For this week's challenge you can choose any of our 2025 sketches or colour combos - just make them festive!  

For my card today I actually used our last sketch CCS574; as I continue sorting through my stamping supplies, I rediscovered a favourite festive stamp set and co-ordinating edgelits that were perfect for a second festive take on Deborah's sketch - take a look:

Here's the low-down on today's card:

A Night of Navy card base was all I needed to highlight my white diecut from the Sleigh Ride Edgelits set. A simple stamped sentiment from the co-ordinating stamp set, Jingle All The Way, and a wooden star from my stash completed my super simple card:

 My card was so simple to make, I made two - a quick way to boost my festive card supplies:

Thank heavens for simple CAS designs at this time of year!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

We hope you can join us for our last challenge of the year!

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)